Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday said it would delay general availability of Vista, the next major upgrade to the Windows operating system, until January 2007, a move that's expected to have some impact on consumer PC sales.
Businesses are expected to get access to the next-generation OS in November, with broader availability to consumers set for January 2007.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., plans to go into "broad consumer beta" to about 2 million users in the second quarter of 2006, the company said in a statement. More than a half million customers have received the latest community technology preview for Vista.
Delaying shipments for consumer PCs until January means Microsoft will miss the holiday shopping season, which accounts for a major portion of retailers' annual sales. In announcing the delay, Jim Allchin, co-president for the Platforms and Services Division at Microsoft, said once it was determined that Vista would not ship in time for holiday sales, it made more sense to focus on businesses first.
"The industry requires greater lead time to deliver Windows Vista on new PCs during holiday," Allchin said in a statement. "We must optimize for the industry, so we’ve decided to separate business and consumer availability.”
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